All Fired Up - God Is Our Passion #4 Series

Introduction

We’re continuing our thoughts during this sizzling hot summer about different fiery stories in the Bible. In today’s story, things are all fired up.

What gets you fired up?

What gets your engines running?

What Makes People “Fired Up”?!

FEBRUARY 22, 2013 BY JCLFALTOT

https://jclfaltot.com/2013/02/22/what-makes-people-fired-up/

It’s an interest question that we ask ourselves.

But where did that phrase come from? Why is it that we describe our feelings as being all fired up.

Well, a Google search isn’t going to give you the answers, but here’s what we each know: to be fired up is to ignite a response from deep within our core beings.

When we think of a fire burning, we picture sparks of orange and yellow rising from a central location. The fire was lit by something or someone and now that fire is engulfing any object it can in order to stay burning. Perhaps it is wood, coal, or something else. If fire were a living thing, we would probably put it in the predatory category. In order for a fire to sustain itself, it must devour other things to survive. Not just eat either. Devour. That’s exactly what fire does — it removes all evidence of the object it was lit upon. And whatever that object was before, it’s been changed forever from its original state.

When we think of people getting fired up about something, we often think about them being passionate about something. This passion could be a cause like cancer research, volunteer work, or even mentoring.

So what gets you fired up this morning?

Every Member Is a Sinner

By Russell Brownworth

Copied from Sermon Central

There's an old preacher story about the preacher one time who was getting fired-up in his sermon. He thundered, "Every member of this church is a sinner!" When he hollered this a second time for emphasis, there was a man on the back row who had a broad smile come across his face. The preacher thought he hadn't gotten through, so he cranked up the volume and bellowed, "EACH and EVERY member of this church is a sinner deserving Hell!" Still nothing — the man smiled even bigger. So finally the preacher tried the direct approach, "Mister? You there on the back row; I said every member of this church deserves to go to Hell — didn’t you hear me, man?"

The man laughed out loud and said, "I'm not a member of this church!"

What is it that we are passionate about today?

For some people it is charity work. For some people it is their jobs. For some people it is sports. For some it is some hobby they enjoy. For some it is their family.

There are a lot of things about which we can be passionate.

There were many things that got the people fired up in Elijah’s day. Unfortunately, God wasn’t one of them.

As a matter of fact, religion really didn’t seem to be one either. As we will see in a minute, when asked who they were going to stand for, the people didn’t answer.

Let’s read Elijah’s fiery story today from 1 Kings 18. It is a long passage, but I think it’s important to get the background leading up to the events we will be focusing on here shortly.

1 Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” 2 So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.

Now, in between verse 2 and 16, there’s a subplot about Obadiah finding Elijah. Obadiah is afraid of being killed by King Ahab if he tells King Ahab where Elijah is, and when they go to find Elijah, he has disappeared. But Elijah promises to Obadiah that he plans to meet with the King. So continuing on with verse 16:

16 So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet Elijah. 17 When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, “So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?”

18 “I have made no trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead. 19 Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”

20 So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. 21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.